Supreme Court in S.C. Sets Stage for Debate On School 'Adequacy'

South Carolina's highest court has set the stage for a legal battle
over the quality of the state's public schools.

An April 22 decision in the state supreme court clarifies provisions
of the South Carolina Constitution, which mandates a free and open
system of education for all, while setting out loose performance-based
standards for education.

Essentially, the 4-1 ruling orders a lower-court trial on whether
South Carolina is providing an "adequate" education to the state's
655,400 public school students in grades K-12.

The state has a responsibility to provide children with a "minimally
adequate" education, Chief Justice Ernest Finney Jr. wrote for the
court majority.

School finance experts say the South Carolina ruling follows a trend
in which courts around the nation are judging the legality of state
education systems not solely by the amount of money a state spends per
school district, but also by the quality of education that students
receive.

In its decision, the South Carolina high court dismissed part of the
lawsuit that focused on changing the state's school funding laws.

But the justices ordered that the remainder of the case--which
focuses on the adequacy of a student's education--be returned to a
lower court for trial.

The ruling in Abbeville County School District v. South
Carolina is a defining one in that it sets standards for
performance with no guidance on how to pay for schools, said John
Augenblick of Augenblick & Myers, a Denver-based school finance
consulting firm.

"South Carolina ... has changed the bar," Mr. Augenblick said last
week. "They've changed the way you think about this stuff."

"I am confident that South Carolina can meet the legal test set down
by the court when this matter is litigated further," Gov. Jim Hodges, a
Democrat, said in a statement after the ruling. "However, I believe our
goal in South Carolina should be to create excellent schools, not just
'minimally adequate' schools."

Carl B. Epps III, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a
statement: "The responsibility for ensuring that every child, no matter
where he or she lives and regardless of his or her school district's
financial well-being, now rests squarely on the state."

State officials and others said they could not predict when the case
might go to trial.

Focus on Standards

The decision comes six years after lawyers for 30 districts sued the
state, arguing that South Carolina's education funding formula was
unfair to rural and poor schools.

By this year, more than 37 school districts--out of 95 in the
state--as well as more than 60 parents and students had joined the
lawsuit.

In laying out the standards by which the state's school system
should be judged, Chief Justice Finney wrote that students must have
the ability to read, write, and speak the English language and have a
fundamental understanding of mathematics, physical science, economics,
social and political systems, and history and governmental processes,
as well as academic and vocational skills.

"We do not intend by this opinion to suggest to any party that we
will usurp the authority of [the legislative] branch to determine the
way in which educational opportunities are delivered to the children of
our state," he wrote. "We do not intend for the courts of this state to
become super-legislatures or super- school boards."

For many years, state courts ruled that fiscal equity meant that
students were receiving equal educational opportunities, said Allan
Odden, a co-director of the Consortium for Policy Research in
Education, in Madison, Wis., and a professor of education at the
University of Wisconsin there.

For the past 10 years, however, the courts have shifted that belief,
Mr. Odden said in an interview.

Today, courts are more concerned with educational adequacy and
ensuring that students receive the same quality of education regardless
of how much money is spent to achieve the goal, according to Mr.
Odden.

Courts in Alabama, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, West
Virginia, and Wyoming have all handed down rulings on adequacy, he
said.

"The courts are saying that [state standards] are a pretty good
idea, and that we need to marry finance with standards and programs,"
Mr. Odden said.

Vol. 18, Issue 34, Page 19

Published in Print: May 5, 1999, as Supreme Court in S.C. Sets Stage for Debate On School 'Adequacy'

Related Stories

Our South Carolina Page
includes articles and statistics on education issues from the past
year.

Web Resources

Read the text of
the ruling in Abbeville County School District v. South
Carolina, from the University of South Carolina Law Center.

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